Wishful Thinking
by Dysfunction Junction
Summary: Michelangelo finds a stone with the word wish on it. But there's no such thing as a wishing stone, right? Be careful what you wish for has never been so true.
1. Chapter 1

_What starts as a day of cleaning turns into much more when Michelangelo finds an odd stone with the word wish on it. But there's no such thing as wishing stones, is there?_

_Might be some light language but nothing major, I'm keeping it lighthearted here. The first draft was way to somber so I ditched it. I'll be working between this and 'vacation' so...enjoy!  
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><p>Wishful Thinking<p>

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><p>Mikey wakes to the sound of yelling. He doesn't rise, so much as fall, out of slumber.<p>

He lies half off the bed, wrapped endlessly in the sheets he found in a dumpster. His brother's tease him about the purple stars, but he likes them.

He's still tired. Late night comic reading is to blame. His eyes refuse to fully open and he's fine with that. He'd rather sleep the day away anyways. In fact, he may use this opportunity to test his acting abilities and feign sickness.

Something shatters in the living room.

He groans and throws a pillow over his head, muting the sound. Yeah, better to stay in today. Safer. He just manages to fall into a nice rhythmic haze when he hears the first call.

"Mikey?"

He grunts, both surprised and irritated that it's Donatello. He tries ignoring him, but Don knows better. Don's voice moves to the doorway. "Mikey, you've got to get up."

He mumbles an indeterminable sound, then burrows deeper in his nest of warmth. There's a pad of feet and he thinks Don's left. He sighs happily. Then his sheets are suddenly flung away, throwing him to the floor.

"Rise and shine, sweetheart." Says a deep voice.

It's surprising how quick Raphael can be, when he wants to.

Mikey grumbles and makes a face at his immediate elder brother. "Not the first mug I wanna see, bro."

Raph throws the sheets away and roughly tells him to get moving. His mumble isn't lost as he leaves. "If I gotta do this crap, so do you."

They're cleaning, spring cleaning today. It'll be nothing short of torture, it always is. And long. His room alone could take days.

He sticks out his tongue at the door, though Raph is long gone.

Don shakes his head, tells him to hurry and leaves. Mikey sticks his tongue at him too. He takes his sweet time, just to be an ass.

Out in the living area their already in motion, well Leo is anyway. Leonardo, master of the katana, dictator of cleaning. He takes his jobs way too seriously, this is no exception.

His voice is sharp. "Michelangelo, you are late."

Mikey waves his eldest brother away. A broom is thrown at him for his troubles. Leo points at the the nearest available floor, the living room. "Go, now."

Mikey salutes and grumbles away. He hates sweeping, it makes him sneeze. And Leo's definition of sweeping is moving every stinking thing they own, so he can get behind and underneath ever surface. He checks, as Mikey's learned, and will make him redo it if he finds it unsatisfactory. Leo wants everything clean. They live in a sewer, so this makes no sense.

Don's at least tried to make devices to help them. Unfortunately they've never been much help. More of a hazard really. The last one had attacked Master Splinter on the intentions that it was picking up lint and hair. The old rat had been charred for weeks. He'd been so mad, he forbade Don from ever trying again. Old fashioned cleaning was reinstated.

Mikey yawns then 'accidentally' swipes Raph who's positioned on a ladder wiping the higher surfaces. He sways but doesn't fall. "Watch it, ya bonehead."

Raph could say more, no doubt would, but Leo's watching and they've already had it out this morning. Looks like Raph lost as he mumbles what can only be silent obscenities to himself. Mikey hears the words _Mr. Big Shot_ and wisely moves on.

Don's busy pretending he doesn't hate dusting as much as Mikey does sweeping. He tries to get out of it, does every time. Uses some excuse about needing to discover the cure for cancer or some nonsense that Leo never believes. Mikey figures he tries to play reverse psychology to get off for good behavior. He's smart, he should know by now, it's not gonna work.

"Real good dusting there Donnie. So good in fact, I think you can do the whooole lair." He barely misses the duster attack. Don would hit better with the broom, as it's closer to his bo, but that's Mikey's.

"Donatello, you're supposed to be dusting the shelves, not Mikey's face." Leo likes to use their full names, it makes him feel older, more in charge.

Mikey smirks at Don's tense shoulders, he's ready to snap. Mikey's done his job and turns to continue his half hearted sweeping. He's had more practice at shamming his way out of things than Don, so he's more convincing. He moves further from the room, towards the kitchen. The closer he gets to it, the more likely he'll be able to sneak away.

Don lets out a loud cough. It may be from the dust, but is probably to alert Leo.

Sure enough, there's Leo to point him back to the entertainment area. "You have to clean from the inside out. Otherwise you'll track dirt." He offers helpfully.

Mikey leans on the broom. "Wow Leo, I think your a mind reader, that's totally what I was thinking."

"I don't appreciate sarcasm." Leo says.

And Mikey doesn't appreciate cleaning on a Saturday. Not that the day really matters, it's not like they get days off or anything. It's the principle. As a teenager, he feels obligated to complain about work on a Saturday. It's not his fault he happens to be an over sized, green turtle who doesn't have a social life and lives underground.

He takes great care in being as noisy as possible. It's boring and his back hurts from inching the television so he can get behind it. Not an easy task and as far as he's concerned, completely stupid. Who cares if there's dirt behind a place that no one's ever going to see?

There's a hum from the couch "You're doing well, Michelangelo."

Master Splinter, apparently.

Mikey might be more appreciative of the complement, were his Master not on the one piece of furniture he now needs to move. Splinter gives no indication that he's leaving, so Mikey moves it anyway, with him on it. The rat's watching one of his soaps. It's in Spanish. Mikey isn't sure Splinter even knows Spanish. On the screen there's a hairy man in a wedding dress trying to marry another woman while some old lady is chanting like she'd possessed. Weird stuff.

He watches for a good ten minuets before he feels someone behind him. "Michelangelo. Just what are you doing?"

He ducks even though he knows Leo's not going to hit him. That's Raph's gig. Leo tortures with exercise and physiological warfare. Makes him mediate for hours. It's much worse.

"Hey Leo, I was just, ya know, spending some quality time with Master Splinter. You know how upset he gets that none of us appreciate foreign programing. I'm trying to broaden my horizons." He sweep his hands. "Isn't that right, sensei?"

Splinter doesn't take his eyes from the set. "You must master one thing before you can learn another." He gestures. "And I believe you have missed a spot, my son."

Leo looks way too satisfied with himself and goes to tell Raph to stop doing...something.

Mikey grumbles and moves the sofa back. "Gee, thanks for the help there, sensei."

His Master holds a wizened claw. "There is much to be learned in the purging of one's homes. You must have pride, Michelangelo. Pride in where you live and who you are. You're brother's are there to help you, but you must also help them. And your master-which you can do now by handing me that remote."

Mikey sighs and reaches for the remote. Splinter makes an inspired sound when a man kisses a pig on the screen. Mikey gives it over begrudgingly and promptly grabs his broom and storms off elsewhere.

Don's not moving very fast, he's been working in the same area since the beginning. He puts the 'slow turtle' stereotype into practice.

"Slow and steady wins the race, eh Donnie?" Mikey catches him in the elbow and Don almost topples something, one of Master Splinter's relics from Japan. His eyes widen but nothing drops or breaks.

Mikey smirks, now they're even. "Snitch." he whispers.

Don fumes. "Why you-"

Mikey whistles, he moves his way back towards another self filled with more crap he's never noticed. Aside from his comic books and video games, movies, bed, _anything_ that's his, the rest of his family's belongings could all be rubbish. He wouldn't know the difference.

He starts to sweep when something strikes his eyes. Something odd. He takes a step closer.

What is that?

He checks over his shoulder, not really knowing why. It's not like he's doing something wrong? Is he? He hesitates before shaking his head. Nope he's just paranoid. Leo makes him that way sometimes. Especially when he's playing god, like he is now.

It_'s _a flat, misshapen stone. He observes it in his green fingers. It's covered in different colors, pretty ugly. It looks out of place amongst the other, much cooler things on the shelf. He peers closer, the word _wish_ is stamped on the side.

He rolls his eyes. Great, some overpriced, gift shop crap. Superstitious nonsense. But why was it here? There was no way Splinter would pick up something so-phony. Must have been a gift from April or something, seemed girly enough. Girls liked sayings like wish, hope, love, all that jazz.

He rolls the stone in his palm, tempted to chuck it at Raph.

"Make a wish, sucka." He pretends the throw and snickers. Raph would kill him, but it'd be worth it.

Maybe he could hit Leo, knock out the stick up his butt.

"What are ya doing?" Raph asks from behind him.

He jumps, flounders the stone, then blurts. "I wasn't gonna do it, I swear."

Raph looks confused, Mikey doesn't blame him. He really needs to try that 'think before you speak' thing Leo's always yammering about.

"Have you been huffing paint thinner again?" Raph asks.

Mikey rolls his eyes. "No Raph, you know that was only one time." And that's because _he_ was the one who dared him to. The moldy _Mars_ bar had _not_ been worth it.

"What is that thing?" Raph points. Mikey's eyes follows the stubby green finger.

He shrugs "Just a stone."

Raph raises a brow, like he expected more."Ya well, you've been looking at it for like five minuets. Ya lucky Leo's gone to take a crap, or something. He'd be all over ya ass."

Mikey smirks. "Is that why you're hiding out?" He asks.

Raph makes a conflicted grunt, like he doesn't want to admit anything. "Whatever, I'm on a break."

"Does Leo know that?" He smiles at the irritated flash in his brother's eyes.

Raph changes the subject. "Where did ya get that? It's pretty, well- pink." He smiles. "Is there something ya need to tells us, Mikey?"

Mikey notices that Raph's right, it is pretty pink. _Huh?_ It wasn't before. _Trippy_.

"Um, it's a wishing stone, I think." He offers it for Raph to see. He's unimpressed and brushes the object away.

"Right. You've been reading those girls books again, haven't you?" Raph accuses.

"No I haven't." He says. Raph _still_ won't let him live down the lot of _Nancy Drew_ books he'd collected from one of their trash raids, years prior. He'd liked the covers. He was twelve at the time, sue him.

Raph rests a hand on one of his sais. "Then how do ya know it's a wishing stone?"

He didn't. "I dunno. It says _wish_ on it and it's a stone."

Raph snorts. "Brilliant deduction."

"Shut up." He tries to storm away but Raph snatches the stone from his hands. He makes a sound of annoyance and tries to reach for it. Raph's way taller than him, so his attempts are thwarted easily.

"Hey give it back." Raph observes the stone, bites his lip then throws it back. "Wishing stone. Stupid." he mumbles.

"Is there a problem here?" Leo's apparently come back from wherever. He doesn't look too pleased.

"Of course not, _Mr. Leader_." Raph scoffs and storms off in giant strides. Mikey's sure Leo can hear him as he quietly stews to himself. Splinter's trying to get him to control his anger through things like counting backwards and calming down before he 'expresses' himself. It's working, but that's bound to be temporary.

Mikey pretends he had nothing to do with it. The sweeping seems to convince, or at least satisfy, Leo enough to move along.

He's sore and more than exhausted by the time he's able to escape to his room. Leo runs a tight ship but even he knows they need rest. Maybe he could offer a hand, things might go faster. Mikey laughs at the thought. Leo dictates not follows.

He realizes with slight amazement that the stone is still in his palm. Had he carried it with him? Apparently so. It's stupid really, but for some reason he can't seem to part with it. The idea pf codependency on a rock freaks him out so he puts it on his dilapidated nightstand. Then stares at it.

_Wish_, the word can't seem to leave his mind.

Something drips from the ceiling. He sighs, must be another leak somewhere in the tunnel. It'd have to be fixed. Great.

"Ya know what I wish? I wish that we were all humans. Then we wouldn't have to live in the sewer."He grumbles, moving a book out of the dirty water's path.

He's being moody and he knows it. He doesn't mind living in the sewers, he just wishes sometimes they didn't _have_ to. That they could be normal.

He groans. He's sounding like Raph with all his moping. Why can't we be normal blah, blah, blah. It is what it is Mikey's just tired and nothings gonna change by complaining about there lifestyle. It's not so bad anyway, being green.

He kind of likes making people crap their pants just by looking at him.

TBC

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><p><em>Writing this while I should be doing homework, let me know what ya'll think.<em>


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for the reviews guys. They help keep me doing this writing thing. I'm hope you enjoy this one too. Let me know. THANKS!  
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><p>Wishful Thinking<p>

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><p>For the second time that day, Mikey wakes to the sound of yelling.<p>

It's not just loud. It's howling, screaming at the top of the lungs. Like someone's being impaled or the place is one fire. Maybe they've finally been flooded out. He turns his head and scans the room for any sign of disturbance. There's nothing. The place is still dry and there's no fire or enemy waiting. So who's screaming bloody murder and better yet, why?

He vaults from the bed and listens. If something's happening, he has to be ready. He stumbles a bit but blames it on being jostled from sleep. He braces his body against the wall and waits.

The screaming stops. This is either a good, or a very bad thing.

He squishes his nose and wiggles his toes. Something's off. There doesn't seem to be any immediate sign of danger but still, something's not right. It's not anything he can see, something _feels_ wrong. He just can't quite put a finger on what it is.

He brings a hand to help balance himself and it suddenly struck with an odd observation.

He's got five fingers.

His hand is against the wall, only it's not his hand. Not even close. It's a human's. He turns the flesh covered object over and observes it. His stomach drops and his mind flips. What's going on? He glances further up. It's not just a hand, he's got a whole human arm. Why? Has he become a human body part snatcher during the last few hours and he didn't know it? If that's the case, Leo's gonna kill him. But, who attached it then? He has a morbid thought. Maybe that's what the yelling was about? Some poor human was wailing in pain out in one of the other rooms, armless.

He smacks his face to stop his increasingly strange thoughts.

"Breathe Mikey, breathe." He commands himself. "Your dreaming, this is all a dream. You'll wake up soon with your nice turtle arm and that will be that. You didn't hurt anybody, your just delusional. You're alright."

Against his better judgment, he peeks down. What he finds takes him to a whole new level of disturbed. That is _not_ supposed to be there. Suddenly, he is not alright, not _at all_.

He doesn't know when he starts screaming or for how long. His brother's say he's got a girl's scream, but right now he doesn't care if the whole world can hear him. _This_ is not alright.

He hears footsteps and inexplicably jumps back to the bed to pull the sheets around him. He doesn't know why, it's not like he's ever done it before. Turtles don't really care about being caught in the buff, they live that way. Then again-

It's Raph, or at least the voice is. He doesn't know who the person is, but he's got Raph's voice and apparently his temper as well.

"Yeah, it's Mikey." The guy yells to someone. He observes Mikey. "I think."

Mikey covers himself further. "Are you here for my soul?"

There's a roll of dark eyes. "Yep, definitely Mikey."

"Well would you kindly move out of the way. You're a regular neanderthal and I can't see around you." This time it's Don's voice, again Mikey's clueless as to why it's coming out of some scrawny human.

"Jealous?" the Raph impersonator asks.

Don's voice snorts and he mumbles. "Hardly." He manages to move past the larger body and peers around the entryway. His eyes catch Mikey's and all he can say is "Oh."

Mikey doesn't like these two humans starring at him. He doesn't like the fact that they've got his brother's voices and in a way kind of look like them. Because his brother's are turtles and so his he. This is freaking him out. "LEO! HELP! I'M BEING-OW!"

The would be Raph hits him, just like regular Raph would. He grumbles and rubs his head. He so surprised by the feeling of hair that it takes him a minuet to retract his hand. It feels-weird.

"Will ya shut up. I don't need your yelling. I've got a freaking headache as it is." The guy shows this by rubbing at his temples, then drops his hand like he's unsure of himself.

Mikey scoots further away."What's going on. Where's Leo? What have you done with my brothers?"

The guy in front of him really is big, he's kind of scary looking too. Especially his eyes, that have an almost reddish tint to them. He looks-evil. "You are unbelievably stupid, ya know that?" The guy snaps.

The other teenager glides over and Mikey notices he's wearing a robe. The purple one April left from when she'd stayed with them. "Raph stop it." He gestures to himself. His light brown hair falls in his eyes and he swipes it away. "Mikey we...well we are your brothers. At least I think so."

Mikey observes him for a minuet. It could be true. The guy's obviously got Donnie's voice and there's something else, his eyes, they're light blue and soft like Donnie's...but what if it's not? This could be a trap. "I don't believe you."

The bigger one looks furious. If he's not Raph, he's certainly got his mannerisms down pact. "This has gotta be a dream. A real crap one too."

"We've already discussed that-"

"It's happened before, Don." This shuts Don up.

All Mikey wants to know is, "Where's Leo."

They both look uncomfortable, it's faux Don that answers, after he clears his throat. "Leo's kind of having a little-"

"Old Leo's lost his marbles. You should see him, the guy- and I do mean guy guy, not turtle guy- is about to rupture something."

Faux Don gives an irritated huff. "As I was saying, Leo's having a-"

"Was he the one screaming?" Mikey asks.

Don throws up his hands, it's so exasperated that Mikey thinks he really is Don. Raph snickers, if Don's Don then Raph has to be Raph. "Yeah, old fearless is having a right bonkers meltdown."

"Can you blame him? Look at us." Don says loudly.

They all fall silent. Mikey makes the decision that they are either all dreaming or having some strange hallucination, but these two humans are in fact, his brother's. He'll roll with that for now, he's got little choice until they can find out what's going on.

He wonders about their father. Has he been...turned like them? "What about Master Splinter?"

Don gives a slight nod. "It must be some kind of airborne toxin if we're all infected, although it could have been in something we ate, last nights dinner or something. I've got to run tests on everything, everyone-"

"Or," Raph offers, "We could just wake ourselves up." He pinches himself, then grumbles when nothing happens.

Don looks even more agitated with his new human face. His brow furrow and his lips thin. "I told you that's not going to work. This is real Raph, whether you want to believe it or not."

"Well I don't." Raph says.

Mikey doesn't know what to believe. He looks at his five fingered hand again, completely stumped.

"Fine, be that way. I'm going to find Leo and Master Splinter. We need to start looking for some answers if we want to come up with a solution." Don huffs, then leaves.

"What a bitch." Raph grumbles. He runs a hand through his his dark cropped hair then crosses his arms. Mikey notices the brightly colored object wrapped around his waist. He points and asks, "Is that the shower curtain?"

Raph glowers, but doesn't meet his eye. "So what if it is?"

"It's got rubber duckies on it."

"..._And?_"

Mikey shrugs. "Nothing."

"Damn right nothing."

Master Splinter is easy to spot. He's pretty much the same size. Perhaps a little taller than as a rat, but their all a lot taller than him now, so it's hard to tell. Mikey frowns when he realizes he's still shorter than Don and way shorter than Raph, Leo's probably taller than him too. Oddly, they don't own a mirror (the one in the bathroom had suffered an abysmal demise in one of their weekly tussles), so everyone's pretty much left in the dark as to what they look like. They have to rely on each other for descriptions.

Mikey tells Raph he looks like he's taken a frying pan to the head, one too many times. "...may want to consider some plastic surgery in the future." He finishes.

"I'm gonna make sure _you_ need some surgery here in a minuet." Raph growls. Mikey can't help but admire the way his muscles bunch when he pounds his fist like that. He decides to jog ahead to where Splinter is, further away from his hostile brother.

"Michelangelo, are you alright my son?" Splinter asks. He's an elderly looking Japanese man. Mikey nods. He's not sure how Splinter knows it's him. Then again he can tell who Splinter is and Splinter's does have that whole 'wisdom of the ages' thing going on, so Mikey isn't really surprised.

He is surprised by Leo, or he assumes it's Leo, who's looking over a map for some reason. Don's next to him and is dictating something as he points down the aged paper. They look like they're planning a war.

Leo catches sight of him and sighs. Mikey feels a bit insulted. Is he really that unappealing or something? No, Leo's not into physical looks like that, he's probably just adding the human mutated count to five.

"Looking good, bro." Mikey knows he deserves the look of steel he receives.

Leo straight as a board, posture impeccable and face set. He may have been flipping out earlier but right now he's the picture of calm. He's got one of those perfect haircuts that fall just right around his face. It's a chocolate brown that reminds Mikey of a candy bar. It makes him want one, badly.

Now that they're altogether it's even more bizarre. Four human teenagers brothers, who really look nothing alike, and an old man, who _definitely_ couldn't be their father, trying to pass as a family. Nobody would believe it. Splinter somehow has proper clothes, if a bit small, so he looks the most 'normal'. But that's not saying much. This _human_ Hamato family is a right mess.

"We're a bunch of freaks." Mikey comments.

"Well, at least we're all safe." Dons says carelessly.

This riles Raph to throw his hands. "Ya call this alright?" he demands.

"Raphael," Splinter admonishes, "We must remain calm, we can not panic and lose our wits."

"Yeah, tell that to Mr. Wonderful over here." Raph points at the now human Leo who's wearing a sheet like a toga. Mikey's got his own purple stars sheets on too. It's weird that they've suddenly developed a sense of modesty.

Leo twitches an eye but doesn't respond. He must be embarrassed or is likely to pretend his meltdown never happened.

"So what have you decided, my sons?" Splinter asks, reverting the attention to the matter at hand.

Don licks his lips, his hair falls again and he pushes it away, looking slightly annoyed. "I- I can't give an answer just yet. I need to take blood samples from each of us. Test the air for toxins and look for any other things that may have entered the sewers."

Leo slides in. "We need to search the sewers first and then-"

Mikey tries to hold in a sneeze but fails. He sniffs and holds the sheet closer for warmth. He's never realized how drafty the sewers are. There seems to be a breeze no matter how hard he bundles himself. "It's cold." He mumbles.

Don looks and Leo. "We need clothes, Leo. We'll all get colds if we walk around in nothing but our house wares."

Leo frowns but nods. "It is a little chilly down here. One of us should go up and find some clothes."

"Yeah, decked out in our sheets, sounds great. We'll be just like regular New Yorkers." Raph grumbles.

Mikey gets an idea. "How about we call April and she can bring us some clothes."

"An excellent proposition Michelangelo." Splinter commends.

Leo doesn't look too certain but Don's already on the cell dialing her using speed dial. "Hey April. I'm not interrupting anything, am I? No. Good. You're not going to believe this-"

"This is great. Now April's getting involved, as if this isn't weird enough."

Mikey raises a brow, it's odd that Raph's complaining about something that he's always seemed to want. "You were the one that used to wish we were normal to humans, now we are."

Raph snarls. "I did not-"

Something hits Mikey as Raph continues his tirade. It's the word. The one word that until now his brain has completely forgotten, _wish_.

"Oh My Gosh-"

The stone. Wish. His statement before he'd dozed off about not living in the sewer, being human. Was this _all_ his doing?

He tries to relay that he can't possibly be right, but for some unknown reason he decides to black out.

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><p>TBC, hopefully.<p> 


End file.
